U12 Dublin Tour – the Captains’ address

Tour Captains this year: Ben Fyfe and Cameron Bourke

“On behalf of all our team, we welcome you all to our London Irish ARFC Under 12s 2017 Tour to Dublin. This is a most special and memorable event in our rugby careers, it officially symbolises the end of our time as Minis and our move into LIARFC Youth. All the lads can’t wait to get on that plane and get away from their parents and the number one rule is ‘what goes on tour stays on tour’.

We would like to say a massive thank you to the tour committee for their efforts and time to pull together this once in a lifetime opportunity. We are extremely fortunate to have such supportive Parents and Coaches around us. We especially thank our committed and quite brilliant Coaches that have helped us reach this stage of our rugby journey with LIARFC, we look forward to continuing on with the next stages with them. We only use the very best you know!

Some of us have been on tour before but none as grand as this one. This trip will make us a notable part of our club having received our Number 1s but also an even more united team and squad of players. All the early starts, freezing cold mornings, muddy faces and the odd black eye, bloody nose have been worth it to get us to this point.

Some of us have been at the club since we were six years old and have been looking forward to the infamous Dublin tour. We’ve heard all the stories, seen so many wonderful memories captured in photographs…. it’s finally our turn now. ‘We will go as boys but come back as men!’

On behalf of our teammates we extend sincere Thank Yous to all the amazing families in Dublin that will welcome us into their homes. I think you’ll know we have arrived, but we will make sure you are happy we stayed. We look forward to returning this hospitality in April when they visit with us.

We are a formidable team of boys, we look out for one another and we look after each other always. We will get to display our own very special teamwork to our Irish friends over this most special weekend in Dublin. We are like bulldozers and will plough through no matter what we meet on the pitch. After all that’s what the game of rugby is all about.

It is amazing the changes the lads have gone through and we have gone through them together, shoulder to shoulder, and as great friends. In the words of the great Brian O’Driscoll, “When you are captain, you are never speaking for yourself.”, we know we speak on behalf of all our Team mates when we say, “Keep Calm Dublin, the boys in Green are coming.”.”